Unusual Boats Sink And Swim At Sunfest Race

It was an aerodynamically designed and finely tuned work of engineering genius -- a masterpiece of technology, boasted the crew.

It was 480 milk cartons held together with 10 rolls of strapping tape, which did not hold together until the beginning of the race.

But it exemplified the spirit behind the 1986 SunFest Odd Vessel Challenge, and the crew was presented with the Mollie Wilmot Award -- for the vessel that sank.

Paul Smith, a mechanical design engineer at Pratt and Whitney, helped build the vessel Friday night with his rugby buddies for the Saturday afternoon race at SunFest, the weekend festival in West Palm Beach.

Before the race, the crew`s spirits were high.

``We`re a shoe-in,`` said the captain, Frances Warwick. ``This has been aerodynamically tested in a wind tunnel. It can withstand a stress factor 1,000 times more than it has to for this tide.

``We drank a lot of milk to build this,`` Warwick said. ``Look at our strong bodies. We`re full of vitamins.``

``I`m amazed it`s still afloat,`` Carolyn Smith said when the vessel was first lowered into the water and the crew began to assemble themselves on the long, narrow vessel. An air mattress with a woman in a bikini adorned the front of the vessel.

Things looked good as the crew began paddling to the starting position in the Intracoastal Waterway, but the boat began to deteriorate before the race began.

As the milk carton vessel slowly lowered in the water, the other odd vessels hovered, waiting for the gun to start the race.

The Challenger, a huge replica of the space shuttle, made out of a roofing material and cardboard, had the largest crew.

``We won first place in the Crafty Craft division of the New River Raft Race in Fort Lauderdale last September,`` said Pam Odachowski, whose husband Wayne supplied the material for the boat. ``It`s really very lightweight compared to how huge it is. It has held 30 people. Today there will probably be about 25 people paddling.``

``After the Challenger explosion, we decided to make this in memory of those astronauts,`` Odachowski said.

The defending champions of the race came up last night from Key West, with their newly refined and improved vessel, determined to hold on to the title.

``We`re faster than last year,`` said crew member Joe Russo. ``We`re out to win every race we enter.``

The eight-man vessel, called the Trans Oceanic Conch-Cord, is built on a Catamaran base, with eight bicycle seats welded in a sturdy metal frame.

The crew is made up of part-time bikers. Indeed, one of the crew, Billy Deans, competed in a triathlon earlier in the day, but would not miss the Odd Vessel challenge.

``They`re my friends,`` Deans said.

The Conch-Cord easily won the race, rounding the buoys far ahead of the Pedal Cat, which was a two-man, bicycle-powered vessel.

The rules for the race were that the vessels could be powered only by people, using paddles, poles or bicycles. No sails or motors of any kind were permitted.

But speed was not necessarily what won over the judges from the Downtown Development Authority, which sponsored the event.

Good Samaritan Hospital won the Best Dressed Crew award for their simulated operating room on pontoons. The crew members all wore surgical greens and masks, as well as life preservers.

The Top Banana, the entry from Lake Hospital in Lake Worth, won Best Looking Crew. This odd vessel had pontoons made to look like bananas, with palm trees and women with palm fronds fanning the crew as they paddled away.

The proceeds from the entry fees, totaling approximately $1,000, will go to the Palm Beach County Muscular Dystropy Association.